


Ghosting

by TackyJackie



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: F/M, Not Beta Read, Not Canon Compliant, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Tags May Change, only a little bit of blupjeans or else i'd be writing a blupjeans fic, switching point of view
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-20
Updated: 2017-12-19
Packaged: 2019-02-17 09:24:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13073943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TackyJackie/pseuds/TackyJackie
Summary: "Check.""What?" John's attention has been snapped back to the game of chess. "How?""Guess I got good in ten years." Is all Merle says in response. John sits staring at the chess board while Merle laughs at him and wonders if this is his own personal hell.





	Ghosting

**Author's Note:**

> i'll probably never finish this but i mean i started it so heres 1,000 words of unbettad writting

John woke up slowly. Gaining his senses back a little at a time, it didn't help with his confusion.

"-ill him. Merle said he was less of a leader and more of a spokesperson, he might be okay."

"We are not having the Hu-"

"-en we'd have a bigger probl-"

John did eventually gain enough strength and consciousness to open his eyes, unsure of how long he was out he lays there looking around the room he finds himself in. It's very much a hospital room, white walls, white sheets, not much decoration wise. A side table next to the bed he's in has a clock on it and a window on the far wall, not much else in the room. He gets the distinct impression that this is supposed to be a cell rather than a room for recovery. He sits in bed staring out the window at some crows in a tree for who knows how long before the calm is disturbed.

The door slams open and in walks two elves and a dwarf he feels he should remember. He spent so much time with him in parlay. They had- no not they. Not they anymore, shit what's our name again? John curses and holds his head in his hands, he doesn't like being alone, he thinks.

Unfortunately, it turns out he said that out loud. The female elf laughs at him.

"Merle, you sure this is the guy? He seems kinda.."

" _Crazy_." The other elf supplies.

"Yeah that, thanks 'Ko. He seems pretty crazy."

"I'm pretty damn sure, I only saw his face every year for the better part of a century." John looks up at Merle and could swear he saw fear flash in his eyes.

"Where am I." He demands, voice rough from disuse, and crying? John touches his face, sure enough, his hand is wet.

"You're uh, well let's go with safe. Yeah, let's go with that." John doesn't like that answer.

"Where am I, Merle." The ferocity in his voice is lessened by the fact that he is sitting in a hospital bed and crying. he tries to strangle Merle, but nothing moves. Nothing happens. He and the elves just stand there watching him with various levels of amusement on their faces.

"Lucretia's gonna be in to talk to you in a bit but in the meantime, I brought this." He pulls out a chess set that John didn't see before. "Figured the last game wasn't a fair one." John thinks back to the last parlay they had. He thinks about how he desperately tried to signal to Merle and how he was embraced before being dragged back into the Hunger.

"No, it wasn't. Not for you anyway." The male elf snickers and whispers something to the other.

"John, white or black?" Merle asks as he climbs onto the bed and sets up the board.

He hesitates. "White."

They play silently until the aforementioned Lucretia walks into the room with a small boy trailing behind her. She looks at the scene in front of her, Merle playing chess with the Hunger on a hospital bed and the twins looking out the window. She smiles tightly.

"It seems you've made yourself right at home." The boy behind her writes something down on a notepad and John has the distant memory of a young boy asking him what he's doing. He's only aware he's staring at the boy when one of the elves steps in front of him.

He looks up to meet the elf's eyes but the woman - Lucretia - drags him back to her conversation. "Merle tells us your name is John. Is that true?" He nods, not trusting his voice. "Why didn't you die with the rest of the Hunger?" He shakes his head.

"I-I don't." He sighs and shakes his head again. Merle looks at him unused to seeing him having such a hard time speaking. "Where am I." This time it sounds more like a question than demand.

The woman smiles kindly. "With any luck, the last place you'll ever be." She says something to the elves, nods at Merle, and leaves.

"Check."

"What?" John's attention has been snapped back to the game of chess. "How?"

"Guess I got good in ten years." Is all Merle says in response. John sits staring at the chess board while Merle laughs at him and wonders if this is his own personal hell.

Soon after John quite embarrassingly lost at chess the elves, now known as Taako and Lup, begged him to let them get out of there because they thought John was more boring than anticipated. He caved and left with the twins not before he made a promise to visit John soon. John doesn't remember falling asleep and he doesn't know how long he was out.

 

* * *

 

John woke abruptly this time, not unpleasantly, just abrupt. He opened his eyes and looked out his window, a large raven was sitting just outside staring at him. He decides to get up and try the door, he'll be damned if he's gonna be complacent and stay in his cell. When he gets up he realizes he's still dressed in his suit, only nix the suit jacket and add smears of black and red. He unbuttons the top few buttons of his shirt and runs a hand through his hair. What's the point in keeping up appearances if he's going to spend an indeterminate amount of time here and probably never leave.

So he goes to the door and he's limping? Sure what fucking else could possibly make this experience any worse right? John opens the door with ease, it wasn't even locked and finds the elven woman standing outside of it talking quietly with a human man. Their conversation ends quickly when he opens the door.

"'Sup, Vore Boy." She says before the man lightly smacks her arm.

"Lu, no, we talked about that." He turns to John. "Merle's telling us to be nice to you,, so uh. Here we are." He looks awkward, John notes.

"About Merle," The woman - Lu? - rolls her eyes. "Where is he."

"Can't tell you that one buddy, that's classified." The man gives her a pointed look and she starts laughing. "Okay fine, we'll show you 'round. I mean you're only the person who was our enemy and killed us and our loved ones repeatedly for 10 years. No biggie." John can tell, however, that it is in fact, a biggie. He smiles at her.

"To be fair, when you're a part of a hivemind and have no real choices it's a little hard to judge morality. It doesn't help when the first time you have your own thoughts in who knows how long you're talking to a shirtless dwarf." He looks at the man again. "So, where is he."

 

* * *

 

 

"I hate him." Said Lup to Barry as they walked away from Merle's room. Fuck it, Merle can handle himself she just needed to get away from that fuck.

"I know, Lup, I hate him too." He shakes his head. "He's like weirdly cocky for someone who doesn't even know where he is."

"Maybe that's why. Maybe he's overcompensating?" She sighs and puts all of her weight on Barry causing them to stumble. "I just really really don't like him."

"Yeah, I don't get what Merle sees in the guy." That makes Lup laugh. Which makes Barry laugh. Which makes the people down the hall look at them weird.

"Babe holy shit the way you said that made it sound like they're fuckin'."

"Maybe they are."

"Fuck, Beans you can't just _say_ things like that!" Lup is still beyond herself with laughter.

"Says you!" Lup is ecstatic she hasn't been so happy for so long, she hasn't been able to hold her husband for so long.

"I love you." She mumbles into his shoulder. Which is awkward for the both of them since she's taller than him.

"Love you too, Lu."

**Author's Note:**

> the title is from the song Ghosting by Mother Mother
> 
> i can always write more if anyone wants it but for right now this is all folks so leave a comment or give some kudos if you liked it and want more


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